Embezzlement Trial Due For Former Kazakh Education Official

Kazakhstan’s former deputy education minister goes on trial on embezzlement charges on June 23.

Sayat Shayakhmetov was arrested in May 2013 and later transferred to house arrest after investigations into his alleged involvement in the theft of more than 1 billion tenges ($5.5 million) were launched by Kazakhstan’s Financial Police.

Investigators say Shayakhmetov embezzled the money from a state project to build a new school in the East Kazakhstan Oblast.

The chief of the Education and Science Objects Construction Directorate, Aleksandr Pak, was also arrested as another suspect in the case. He remains in pretrial detention.

Shayakhmetov served as deputy education minister from October 2011 until his arrest.